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Tweaking Registry the hard way

Hi

In windows You can Customise many things By Changing/Editing/Creating Registary Values.. Registary Hold the Key to many Hiden feature in Windoes's OS's. You can open the Registary by Typing "c:\windows\regedit" or simpaly regedit iin the Start--&gt;Run. Just wanted to shareSome of my faveourate Registary Tweaks which or remember just now i am sure most of them have been discused here before... Lets see if someone adds some more to it.. Okay all this can be done the easy way there are many registary Tweaking Software awailable you can use thm but they kill all the fun .......Frankly i have nevr use them so i don't know much about them........I thinkMemorY made a list of them
From Microsoft:
"Regedit.exe is the registration editor for 16-bit Windows. It is used to
modify the Windows registration database. The database is located in the Windows directory as Reg.dat. The database contains information about 16-bit applications, and is used by File Manager for opening and printing files. It is also used by applications that support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). Reg.dat is used and maintained by Windows on Windows (WOW)and 16-bit Windows applications. The WOW layer resides on top of the Virtual DOS Machine (VDM). Regedit.exe is a 16-bit application that is included in Windows NT for compatibility with previous 16-bit applications. Regedit provides a method for examining Reg.dat under Windows NT. You can migrate the Reg.dat database file to the Windows NT registry during the first logon to an initial installation of Windows NT."

The Windows Registry - A definition

"The registry is a important hierarchical database used in Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000 and XP, used to store configuration information for applications, hardware and users on the system".

Registry Editor - A definition

"The Registry Editor allows you to edit the registry. The registry editor is a powerful tool, but can cause serious problems if used incorrectly. Before you modify the registry it is recommended that you back up the registry and understand the procedure how to restore it if problems occur.".

Please Backup your Registary Before Editing/Modifying he registry For more information how to back up the registry, Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Regestry is the core of windows OS's ..If you mess with you may need to reinstall/Repair your OS's. So always keep the installation Disks ready. You shhould always create a backup of regestry before trying to edit/modify it.

In case you wondring what those weird namemean..It's i think Microsoft's form Security. I Think Microsoft believe it you store a file in a systm directory and give it weird name it will keep average users form using it. They think that it can keep users away by doing this. Geee some Security huuuh

Boot your System With the windows boot Disk i prefer windows98 boot disk.....(or just coby the explorer.exe to some other folder nad remove the Read only attribute.

Copy You explorer.exe to another dirrectory. in case anything Goes Wrong..

At the Prompt type edit /70 %SystemRoot%/windows/explorer.exe.

This will open the Explorer.exe in the edit window. You will see a lot of junk characters.

Now all we have to do is find the "S T A R T" in it and replace it with out text..

It's generally near the end of the File so scroll down to the end of the file. then start to look upwards.

After a few paragraphs of junk characters you will see some human readable characters. keep Scrolling up until the Human readable characters end.

Now the start Lies Below Betwen those Pharagraphs of Non-Human redable characters and this paragraph of non-Human readable characters.

Now use the Search Feature of Edit.exe.. Search for "S" . When you Find "S t a r t" .

Now if you want to replace the Start with another 5 letter String then Go ahead Replace every character of the String with your String.

But if you want a String which is shorter of longer than 5 characters than it's a bit Triky

You see a chatacter just Left to the "S" in Start. that character defines the length of the String of the Start menu. Place you cursor just below it and see it's value on the bottom right corner of the edit window. it's "5" got my point. it's 5. you can have 5 characters.

if you wnat a string which is say 37 characters long then replace this character with "%" it has the ASCAII value 37. Now you can have a 37 character long start menu text. you can find a character that suits you lenght by just placing you curson below every character you see in this window.

One more very Important Thing the Gaps/Spaces yoiu see in the window Place your Cursor below one of the Gaps ... It's ASCAII value is "0". So it's not "Space" Do not Press space when entering the String. Copy one of the spaces in the edit window and paste it between the string..

Hopefully you are done. now restart your computer. If it refuses to Strt or says Explorer.exe has performad a ileegal Function then restart you computer with the boot disk and replace the explorer.exe with the original one... and try again..it's fun....

I have tried HEXEditing many other Exe's like Winzip and Media Player and Changed the menu some other stuff.. Do it on your own risk because most of the time i end u f**king the exe and have to restore it back . so always copy the original exe to another place before trying to hex edit it.

Changing the Names and Tool Tips and Default Icons of System Folders ( Like Control Panel., Dial-up - Networking ect. etc)

Easy Way:: Use Micheangilo heard about it but never used it..

The hard Way::

For Control Panel :: My Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

On the Right Pane there will be two String keys..

(Default) :::: "Control Panel"

InfoTip :::: "Use the settings in Control Panel to personalize your computer. For example, you can specify how you want your desktop to look (Display icon), which events you want to hear sounds for (Sounds icon), the volume you prefer for audio recording (Multimedia icon), and much more."

Modify these Keys (Default) key to change the name of the "Control Panel" and the InfoTip To Change the Tool Tip Text.

Similarly you can Change Other System Folders the trick is to Get to "My Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\" Folder then Use the Edit--&gt;Find .. Say you want to Change "Recycle Bin" Get to "My Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\" by expanding the folders.. then Click on CLSID . USe the Find Feature now by pressing "F3" a find dialog box will appear Type in "Recycle Bin" Then Find.

Now to change the Icons. Just Expand "My Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}" (For Recycle Bin) Click on DefaultIcon. You will see three String Values in the Right Pane

On the Right Pane create a "DWORD value" by the name "NoRecentDocsMenu" (case Senstive) and set it's value to "1"

A background Image to the Internet Explorer

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\

On the Right Pane , Create a String Value and name it "BackBitamp" (case Senstive and without Quotes) and modify it's value to the path of the bitmap ( eg "C:\pic\new.bmp") you want to use (only .bmp files).

Removing the Last Looged in User Name in windows NT/2000

This one is my favourate too...By defaut they show the username of the last logged in user. You can desable this feature by creating a rigestary value.

on the right Pane Create a new string value called "DontDisplayLastUserName" (case senstive) and set the value to "1" (without Quotes).

changing the Individual Folder Icon

Fed up with that Yellow Folder Icon

Open Notepad type
[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=C:\icon.ico

Save the file and name it as "Desktop.ini" (caution not as desktop.ini.txt so remember to put the "Desktop.ini" when you save the file this will save the file as desktop.ini) in the very Folder you want to change the Icon of......

last but not the least

Just for Fun

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVarson\WinLogon\

On the Right Pane Create a String value and name it "LegalNoticeCaption" Enter the Value "I am 1337"

Create another String value and name it "LegalNoticeText" and enter it's value as "Bill Gate is My Bitch" Sorry Dopp but it's the truth j/k

There are many More of them I don't remember right now i will to the list as soon as i figure out some of them.........I am attaching the Screen shots of the edit Explorer.exe before and after Changing the Satrt menu text and a few Icons i have got .....

Because there is a hard way around.........and it's Fun to do things the hard way Sometimes.......I like to get my hands wet.......i guess.......Those tools kill all the fun MemorY.........The first time i did the Start menu changing thingy i was very new to computers then..... It took me 4 hours........But.....You should have seen the look on my face...Would i have got that look if i had used Resource hacker or whatever it's name is...I went on to edit the exery damm .exe i found on my computer ....... ....and F***ed most of them and had reinstall.........ya you can say i am a Idot who wants to do the things the hard way around......But thats what i am...

I like to do things the hard way, now i understand your thread. And i feel like you about the start thing, took me 40 minutes my first time, yesterday i did it in less than 2 minutes. I do like working with a black screen and white/green letter(makes me look 1337 ) and typing in commands and doing all that stuff, most people ask me why I use a telnet e-mail account, they think i just wanna look cool, but no, i like the command prompt, telnet, ms-dos whatever you wanna call it....and like working with it, when i do it with a program i dont feel anything, when i finish something the hard way, i feel success and just feels good.